


How You Make Me Feel

by DariganBori



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Adventure, Emotional, Emotions, Feelings, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Love, Love/Hate, Outer Space, Rick Being an Asshole, Rick Mellowing Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23779384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DariganBori/pseuds/DariganBori
Summary: When an adventure goes wrong, Morty has had enough of Rick's insensitive behavior and quits their adventures for good. Rick is forced to prove he isn't as insensitive as Morty thinks in order to get his little helper back.
Comments: 27
Kudos: 107





	1. No More Rick and Morty

**Author's Note:**

> I've written many stories over the years, but this is my first Rick and Morty story. (It is also the first story I'm posting on AO3.) I've read quite a few inspiring Rick and Morty stories from great authors here and other places around the web, and I thought I'd dip my toes into the fandom to see how it goes. I hope I've done okay here.
> 
> I never expected to write anything for this series, honestly, but this idea just struck me hard one night before I fell asleep, and I decided I had to write it down. I don't necessarily plan on writing any more stories for this series though, unless another idea hits me hard like this one did. Haha!
> 
> I also wanted to just see some sweetness and fluff between Rick and Morty, because damn it, Rick is an asshole, and Morty needs some love. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Note: Of the many Rick and Morty stories I've read, I noticed Rick and Morty's eyes are interpreted as different colors depending on the author. As for me, I wrote Morty's eyes as blue, which I consider to be canon.
> 
> In the Rick and Morty comics—which are also supposedly considered canon to the series—in issue #23, there are several Mortys that are being electrocuted by shock collars in order to keep Rick hidden from other Ricks and Doofus Jerry. When the Mortys are being shocked, it shows their irises are blue. Unless I've misinterpreted that, I consider Morty having blue eyes canon. Rick's eyes are still up for debate as far as I know. Haha!

A circular portal of glowing green swirling fluid erupted into existence in the garage of the Smith household, and seconds later, Rick and Morty tumbled out of it and rolled into heaps on the concrete floor. The portal closed again swiftly, collapsing into its center and spitting out a few drops of green liquid before those too evaporated into nothing.

"Fucking dammit, Rick!" Morty shouted, struggling up onto his elbows and unfolding his legs out from under his body. "You—You—You evil son of a bitch!"

"Whoa, easy there, Mo—UURRP—Morty! Cool your panties! It's all good, bro," Rick replied, climbing back to his feet easily. He dusted off his lab coat, but it would need a serious washing and bleaching to get the dirt and bloodstains out.

"Are—Are you kidding me right now, Rick?! Are you fucking serious?!" Morty yelled back, furious and finally getting onto his own feet, though he was still wobbly. "They're all—all **dead** , Rick!" He swiped at the sweat on his forehead and temple, smearing some blood across his skin that was not his own. His filthy clothes looked even worse than Rick's, the hem of his yellow shirt shredded and several holes in his jeans.

Morty turned and paced around the garage frantically, yelling and gripping at his messy, short brown hair.

With a smirk on his face, Rick chose not to mention to the boy about the claw marks that shredded the back of his shirt open.

"Relaaax, Mo-Morty, they were lower-level life forms that barely had what you and I would call a consciousness any-anyway. Besides, I needed their blood infused with the chemicals their bodies produced while enraged, and that was the only way I-I could get it," Rick tried to explain calmly while he produced several large glass tanks capped with metal ends from his infinitely deep lab coat pockets. He set them neatly onto his workbench, grinning at the abundance of such a rare acquisition.

"You—You used me as **bait** , Rick!" Morty bellowed, whirling and glaring, gripping his small hands into tight fists.

"Yeah! And it worked great, Morty!" Rick laughed and turned to him, stepping over and clapping him heartily on the shoulder. "Your yellow shirt was perfect! They hate yellow—drives 'em bonkers! Ha-ha!"

Morty seethed and swatted his grandfather's hand away from his person, gritting his teeth. "You k-killed the entire flock, Rick! There—There were babies and—and everything!"

Rick scoffed and turned away again, waving his hand noncommittally. "Whatever, Morty. There's thousands more flocks just like 'em on that planet. Not to mention on that planet throughout infinite universes. Not like I wiped 'em **all** out." He was growing bored with the conversation and wanted to move on with his research and experiments with the alien blood.

"Urrrrghhh!" Morty howled in rage, trying to let off some steam. It didn't work. "That's it, Rick! I-I've had it! You're a mean, e-evil bastard that couldn't care less about anyone or anything! I-I-I can't stand people like you, Rick!"

Groaning in irritation, Rick turned and leaned his backside against the workbench, crossing his arms and leveling bored eyes at Morty. It looked like avoiding his grandson's ire wasn't going to be possible. "Like I haven't heard **that** before, Morty. You think I care about your opinion of me? Why don't you go cool off in the shower. Maybe yank one out or something—jus-just get outta here and calm down for fuck's sake. I got work to do."

"No!" Morty snarled, pointing a rigid finger at his grandfather's blasé expression. That look on the old man's face only enraged him further. "I've had enough of you, you crotchety old piece of shit! I'm done! I'm out! No more adventures!"

One of Rick's eyes twitched. "Is that right, **Morty**?"

"Ye-Yeah, it is, **Rick**! I've had e-enough of you using me! You—You abuse me all—all the time, Rick! You put me in horrible situations and leave me questioning my sanity and morals and v-values and—and fucking **everything** , Rick!" Morty panted hard, adrenaline and young, teenage hormones the only thing fueling his body and words at the moment. "And it all just shows me something really im-important that I knew for a-a long time now, but just cho-chose to ignore it! You don't care about me at all, Rick! You—You got nothin' in that cold black hole that's in your chest where your heart is supposed to be! You don't f-feel anything for anybody, not even yourself, and least of all **me**!" he howled, pointing a finger at his own heaving chest. "I'm your gr-grandson! You're supposed to love me and c-care about me and—and worry for me, Rick! I **need** you to care and love and worry for me! I n-need it so badly, Rick! But I get **none** of that from you, ever! You—You just used me as **bait** to lure in bloodthirsty savage animals with huge claws and teeth and spines, Rick!!" Morty bellowed. He gasped for breath, hunching forward with the intensity of how utterly broken and furious he felt. Small shaking hands clutched at his own torn shirt, over his heart, rumpling the fabric even more than it had been.

"You must hate me..." he added, voice coming out in a trembling whine. He reached up and wiped at his cheeks, not realizing beforehand that they were covered in tears. "Why else would you do such terrible things to me all the time? You hate me and you don't care and you never did, Rick!" he huffed, working himself back up again. He felt his guts twisting and an unsettling wave of nausea made him sway a little.

Rick regarded him with a carefully neutral expression. He dipped his hand into his lab coat and withdrew his flask, uncapping and taking a long pull from it, eyes locked onto his grandson while the boy ranted. He said not a word.

"Well, g-guess what, Rick..." Morty glared at him, his blue eyes narrowed and striking in the fluorescent lights in the garage. "I h-hate you too!" he spat, words like venom from a viper. "I hate you and the adventures and—and **everything** , Rick! I'm done! I quit! No more adventures, and **no more R-Rick and Morty**!" he bellowed, his voice echoing in the garage hauntingly. "If you won't give me at least the common courtesy of giving a damn about me or my well-being, then I can't bother to put up with your egomaniacal bullshit, Rick! Fuck you! Fuck the adventures! Fuck your stupid fucking science garbage!... And—and fuck **me**...for ever thinking you would care about me at all..." Tears rolled down his cheeks like a dam had burst long ago, streaking through the blood and dripping off of his chin in large pink droplets. He whirled and ran from the garage at last, struggling with the door until he managed to get it open and sprinted through the kitchen.

"Morty?" a soft voice wondered, and he skidded to a halt in the doorway to the dining room. "Morty, um...is everything okay?" Beth asked, carefully lowering a bottle of wine down to the counter she had been pulling from a cabinet.

It was dark in the house, being late in the evening, and Beth had left the lights off, not needing them to find her stash before she went to bed. She couldn't see her son very well, but he looked disheveled.

Morty stood in silence for a few short moments, his stiff back to his mother, then huffed and sobbed in earnest, taking off and disappearing through the house. Beth heard the distinct sound of feet stomping on stairs, and a second later, a door slamming on the second floor.

Worry filled her belly with an uncomfortable acidic whorl, and she turned and headed for the garage, stepping through the door cautiously.

She found Rick standing at his workbench, facing the dark window, head tilted back and literally guzzling from a bottle of hard liquor.

"Dad?" she asked quietly, hoping not to startle him and make him choke.

Pulling the bottle away from his wet lips, Rick groaned and clunked it down onto the workbench loudly. "What?" His tone was clipped and gruff, not at all inviting further conversation.

Beth wrung her hands together nervously, reading the tension in her father's frame and hearing the warning in his voice. She felt like the old man was more like a caged or wounded animal, and feared getting too close to him.

"Uh well...is Morty...all right?" she began, easing into what would probably be a difficult conversation.

Rick snorted and tipped the booze back to his lips, eagerly gulping more. He did not answer.

Beth sighed and held a hand to her opposite arm, suddenly feeling like the little girl she had been all those years ago before her father had abandoned the family. Awkward and not knowing what to say, but wanting to vie for her father's attention.

"I take it you and he had a fight?" she asked, getting straight to the point. She knew already. She had heard the shouting. Not so much the words they had spoken, but definitely shouting.

"So?" Rick grunted, gripping tightly to the neck of the bottle, nearly empty already.

With a knowing nod and another soft sigh, Beth felt more of her motherly instincts kicking in instead of her long-lost childhood woes. "Well...I won't ask. But Dad?" she wondered, looking at his rigid back and wild bluish-grey hair, "please make up with him. Morty really looks up to you, and—"

"Tch!" Rick hissed through his teeth, lifting the bottle and clunking it down hard on the workbench just to do it. "Why do I have to be the one to fix everything around here?! The little punk wants to have a hissy fit, that's his own problem! I got better things to do than deal with his teenage drama bullshit!" he snarled, kicking back another long gulp and finishing off the bottle. He threw it to the side, the glass clamoring against the concrete but not breaking like he hoped it would. That only frustrated him, and he dug through another cabinet and brought out another full bottle of hard liquor.

Beth's shoulders sagged in disappointment. Both her father and Morty were quite stubborn and difficult to deal with most of the time. It was no wonder they butted heads a lot.

"Okay, well... I can't make you two do anything. But please, Dad...talk to him? I mean, give him a little time, but, please talk to him?"

Rick groaned in response, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Supposing that was the best she would get out of him, Beth turned and left quietly, shutting the garage door with a soft click.

Rick grit his teeth and glared at his dim reflection in the dark window.

"Talk?" he scoffed out loud to no one. "Like that little shit would give a single fuck about what I had to say." He gulped from the fresh bottle of booze, relishing the burn as it sloshed down his throat and the warmth he felt as it settled in his stomach. "Words are so stupid," he hissed, clunking the bottle back to the workbench. "Words ne-never convey the right meaning. They're poi-pointless..." He tilted back and guzzled as much liquid fire as he could in one breath—which was almost the whole rest of the bottle. He pulled the mouth away from his wet lips and panted, watching as the last remnants of the liquor sloshed unevenly at the bottom of the bottle. It took a full thirty seconds to realize it was because his hand was shaking.

"Words...never work..."

Several days passed. There was a quiet tension in the air throughout the entire house, and everyone felt it. When Rick and Morty weren't getting along, the entire family and even friends and neighbors could tell. The two avoided each other like the plague, never seen in the same room together for more than the few seconds it took for each to retreat when they noticed the other.

Most of the time, they stayed in their respective rooms, Morty in his bedroom, and Rick in the garage. They took their meals separately, never coming to the dinner table despite the grousing Jerry had given to Morty several times and Beth's gentle pleading of her father to please join them for a bite to eat. They were both remaining steadfastly stubborn, and it was really starting to sink in that something was very wrong between them.

Beth finally confronted her father in the garage again, begging him to talk to Morty. She was noticing the boy looking bleary and crestfallen, his energy lacking and dark rings under his tired eyes. Rick was generally the same, but a lot more drunk.

She pleaded with Rick to do something for both of their sakes, for everyone's sake. Something, anything, to get back to the way they had been, happy and going out on adventures like they used to. Morty was wasting away up in his room and Rick wasn't doing much better. They needed each other, and she could clearly see that—the whole family could, even, surprisingly enough, Jerry.

Begrudgingly, Rick humored his daughter and simply nodded in answer then ushered her out of the garage, locking the door behind her. He sighed heavily and leaned his back against the wood, staring lazily at the the ceiling. He had to admit, he wanted things back to normal too. He had inventions to create, but was lacking the resources necessary to complete them. He needed Morty to go out with him to gather what he required, knowing that without the boy, his brainwaves would easily be detectible by unwanted adversaries. Rick was stubborn, but he wasn't stupid. Going out on his own would be a poor decision, and getting captured by whoever got to him first wasn't high on his 'to-do' list.

Besides...he hated to admit it, but...he missed having the little guy hovering around all the time. Things just weren't the same. Difficult as that little shit was most of the time, he was still a fairly compatible companion for Rick. The brainwaves excuse had become just that over time...an excuse. Morty was more than a shield—a **lot** more. Though, Rick would rather do just about anything else than admit to that. Emotional shit was not his forte. That was why he and Morty were so compatible on that level. Rick's lack of emotion and empathy was perfectly counterbalanced by Morty's abundance of those traits. It had saved as well as endangered their asses on multiple occasions. A perfect balance.

He sighed. But...it seemed Rick's lack of emotion and empathy had finally taken their toll on his young partner. He often forgot that Morty was still just a kid—a young teenager, full of hormones and hope that the universe wasn't a cruel mistress. Subsequently, Morty could still be broken and his feelings easily trounced. He didn't see the multiverse the same way Rick did, through tired eyes that saw how cruel and uncaring reality was. A part of Rick—a part that had slowly been growing bigger over time—wanted to keep that pessimistic world-view away from his impressionable grandson. Even if it was only prolonging the inevitable—when Morty finally saw the multiverse with the same cold, unfeeling eyes as his jaded grandfather—Rick still felt the desire to shelter him from it for a while.

So now, Rick had to wonder how he could manage to get back on Morty's good side so they could hang out and go adventuring again. Talk was cheap, and words would never work to convince the kid to be his little helper again.

Rick grunted and pushed off the door, lumbering over to his workbench and plopping down in the chair beside it. He propped his elbows to the surface and nestled his head in his hands, then closed his eyes and began concocting a plan. It had to be fool-proof...make that Morty-proof. He couldn't fail. He figured that once he put his soon-to-be plan into action, he only had one chance to win back the kid's favor, or Morty would probably push him away for good.

A few more days crawled by in the same way as the last several.

Night had fallen hours ago, and Morty found himself lying listlessly in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fully fall asleep. He drifted in and out of light dreams that confused him as to whether he was truly sleeping or not. He would feel himself becoming heavy and his breaths slow, but then his eyes would open, and he'd be staring at his dark room. Sometimes it would be covered in a fog, and other times it would be completely pitch black. But then he would snap fully awake and see it for what it really was, just dimly lit with moonlight.

The door to Morty's bedroom flew open and bashed against the wall, startling the dozing boy into sitting up and screeching in alarm.

"Morty!" Rick's familiar voice called through the dim room. His figure remained shadowed in the doorway, lit from behind from the hall light and making his tall, lanky form and wild hair seem threateningly ominous.

Morty clutched his blankets up closer around his face. " _Oh, shit..._ " he mumbled quietly to himself.

"Morty! Get up!" Rick yelled in a hushed tone, flicking the light on and blinding the boy. "We-We gotta go, Mor-Morty, gotta—gotta get going!" He rushed over to the side of the bed and yanked his grandson's protective covering off, revealing him wearing his yellow T-shirt and a pair of boxers and socks. "Get—Get yer pants on, Morty, come-on! I got—got—got somethin' to show you, Morty! Somethin' real important!" He rummaged in the boy's drawers and found a pair of jeans and tossed them across Morty's chest. "Come-on, Morty, let's go!"

Morty grunted, sitting up in bed and throwing his pants onto the floor angrily. "N-No way, Rick!" he told him firmly, rubbing his watering eyes and grabbing for his blankets. "I-I-I told you I'm fuckin' done! No more adventures! G-Get the fuck outta my room! I'm trying to sleep!" He pulled the blankets up over his shoulders and tried to lay back down, facing away on his side as if to finalize the conversation.

Rick reached back down and yanked them away again. "This—This is different, Morty! We're runnin' outta time! We gotta go, or we'll miss—"

Morty shrieked in anger, sitting up and balling his hands into fists against the mattress. He glared at Rick with stark hatred, and that look and that furious noise froze Rick in his tracks.

"Fuck you, Rick! There's always no time! There's always something important! There's always the fate of the universe hanging in the balance! But it's always just you! **You** , Rick! Your selfish need to drag me along to do crazy bullshit I never signed up for to begin with! You that uses me all the time to get what you want! I told you, I'm fucking done with your shit, Rick! Go—Go find another Morty, one that will follow you around like a good little slave and do everything you tell him to! But that's not gonna be me, Rick! No matter how much you want me to just roll over and do whatever you say, I'm not gonna do it! I need you to give a fuck about me and care for me like—like an actual grampa should! An actual friend! A real partner! Because I'm more than just another stupid Morty, Rick! I'm more!" He hiccuped on a sob, not realizing he'd begun crying during his tirade. "I-I'm **more**!" He sobbed and wiped at his cheeks, reddened from being so upset.

Reaching right in, Rick grabbed his small arm and gave a solid tug. "Yeah, yeah, I-I g—URRRP—get it, Morty. Now come on, we gotta go!" He turned and pulled on his grandson, blinking to rid the excess moisture in his eyes—most likely from the poor lighting of the room.

Morty struggled, yanking back on his arm and resisting, digging his heels into the mattress and grabbing the headboard. "No! No, I'm not going! F-Fuck off, Rick!" he shouted, fury replacing his sadness instantly.

"Come **on** , Morty, we're running outta time! We gotta go **now**!" Rick argued, turning back and fumbling with the boy's flailing limbs, trying to get a firm hold on him.

"Noooo!" Morty shrieked, kicking the old man in the gut and twisting his body into ridiculous positions to keep slipping through his grandfather's frustratingly insistent hands.

"Goddammit, Morty!" Rick growled in exasperation. He reached into his lab coat and withdrew a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

"What are you doing?! No, Rick, please!" Morty screeched, fear replacing the anger. He began struggling for a whole new reason.

"H-Hold still, Morty, fuck!" Rick growled, weaving the syringe through wiggly arms and legs and managing to stick the boy in the junction between his shoulder and neck. He depressed the plunger and injected the fluid, then withdrew it and tossed it aside.

Immediately, Morty's struggles waned, and his eyelids drooped. His eyesight blurred into and out of focus, and it felt like all of reality was becoming distant and hushed. He stared up at Rick, sinking back into the ruffled sheets and blankets, a sick sort of feeling in his guts. It felt like acid and lead mixed in one, leaving his veins feeling icy and his heart like a cold stone.

It felt like such utter betrayal.

He should have known...Rick always got what he wanted.

Tears slid down his cheeks again, even as his eyes slipped closed. The last thing he saw was Rick's blurry face, leaning close and opening his mouth as if to say something, then it all went black.

Rick sighed and sagged over top of his grandson. "Sorry, Morty...but—but this is one adventure I'm not letting you skip out on," he told the unconscious boy softly, sadness pulling up his unibrow.

Quickly, he grabbed Morty's pants off the floor and drew them onto his legs then secured the button and zipper in place. He was already going to catch hell from the kid when he woke up; he didn't need to also be reamed for taking him out without proper covering. He found Morty's shoes over by the door and put them on too, even tying the laces.

When Morty was dressed, Rick scooped him into his arms and carried him out of the room. He barely made it into the hall when Summer's bedroom door opened and the strawberry blonde teenager peeked out.

Shit, he was so occupied with getting Morty to come along that he didn't realize their little spat was probably loud enough to wake the neighbors across town.

"Grampa Rick?" she asked softly, opening the door further and standing in the frame. Her eyes warily observed Morty's unconscious body dangling in Rick's arms like a frail damsel. "Is...everything okay?"

Rick regarded her with little interest, his mouth pulled into a straight line. "Everything's fine, Summer."

The girl swallowed, sensing a dark tension in her grandfather. The old man had a real knack for being intimidating without doing much at all. Her eyes slid to her little brother once again. She had just heard them both yelling loudly and furniture banging against the wall like they were struggling on the bed or something. She would have been a lot more suspicious about what the two were actually doing in there if not for how angry their voices were.

"Is Morty..." she began, still staring at her little brother.

"He's fine," Rick answered, tone flat and clipped. It sounded like an insistent end to the conversation.

"Oh...okay... Um...you going out on another adventure?" Summer asked on, afraid to let them walk away, afraid that that would be the last time she ever saw Morty again.

Where were her damn parents?! Why weren't they out here too, trying to intervene when it was obvious something very wrong was happening?! Oh, right, she forgot. Her alcoholic of a mother was probably passed out on wine, and her idiot of a father slept with earplugs in so he wouldn't 'be bothered by Rick's banging and clanging in the garage all night'. They would not know what happened until tomorrow. It all made Summer more nervous, knowing she was all on her own and facing a Rick, one of the most dangerous beings in existence.

"That sure is what it looks like, doesn't it, Summer?" Rick answered, frowning and not a single word stuttered.

That only made her more afraid. Their whole exchange seemed to scream 'finality'. As in, 'this is the end'.

"Are you...coming back?" she heard herself ask, idly impressed with her own self for her voice not trembling.

Finally, Rick moved, dropping his hard stare away from Summer's eyes and looking down at the unconscious boy in his arms. He gazed at Morty for a few long moments as if his mind was racing through a dozen scenarios all at once. "Probably," he concluded, his tone softening just a little.

With that, he continued to the landing and walked down the stairs, completely ignoring his granddaughter, whom he left shaking and wiping the sweat and fresh tears from her face. He ignored everything, entering the garage and placing Morty into the passenger seat of the ship and buckling him in. Hopping into the driver's seat, he opened the garage door and drove out onto the driveway, then took off, straight up into the night.


	2. First Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After their rough fight and subsequent days of ignoring each other, Rick finally puts his plan into action to get back on Morty's good side. Forced to abduct him, Rick takes Morty to their first stop on a, hopefully, Morty-proof adventure.

Morty woke slowly, feeling a warm breeze on his body. It took longer than it should have to realize that he was no longer in his bedroom. There was a strange sensation against his exposed skin where he was laying, and the sweet scents on the breeze were definitely different to what he was used to smelling coming through his window. He struggled to open his eyes, but found once the lids parted, it was easier and easier to leave them open and stay awake. Strength returned to his body just as steadily, and finally, he managed to work himself up onto his elbows and take a look around.

He seemed to be on an entirely different planet, but whether he was still in the same dimension was unclear. It was nighttime, he observed, and he was lying in some variety of purple grass on top of a hill that overlooked an endless field of the stuff. The stars up above in space were bright, and there was a dazzling, colorful nebula swirling over half the sky. It flowed with reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, and purples, a bright array that mixed softly with one another, focusing into white where it was the brightest, wisping through in a gentle and serene pattern.

Hearing an exhale of breath and seeing a familiar figure in his peripheral, Morty turned to acknowledge Rick sitting next to him. The old man was smoking something that was producing swirls of rich colors mixed with sparkles. It resembled the nebula in the sky, actually.

Rick had a blasé look about him, slouching and resting his elbows to his bony knees. It seemed he didn't care if he was there or not. He just looked...bored?

Despite the surroundings all looking quite lovely and serene, Morty felt his anger sparking back up once more. He stared at his infuriating grandfather who had drugged him, kidnapped him, hauled him off to this strange planet, and now looked like he didn't even care! He was even sitting there getting high on some strange alien drug!

Morty sat up fully and glared at Rick with disgust. "Wh-What the hell, Rick?! Where's this urgent thing you needed me for, huh?! You selfish bastard!" he spat, gripping the purple grass at his side and feeling his fingers sink into soft soil.

Rick sighed long and slow, exhaling more of that strange sparkling smoke that swirled with a variety of soft colors. He remained quiet.

"I-I-I can't believe you, Rick! Of all the things you've done to me...this, this is... You—You **drugged** me, Rick!" Morty shouted, feeling tears prick his eyes. That acidic lead feeling sank in his gut again, and his veins pumped frigid blood through his trembling limbs. "H-How could you?!"

Again, Rick stayed silent, lightly inhaling on the alien blunt between his fingers.

Morty's eyes widened as if he just realized something. "You—You're abandoning me here...aren't you? I-I don't wanna do what you want anymore, and so you brought me here to get rid of me. You're g-gonna leave me to fend for myself and go get another Morty, aren't you?" His eyes flashed with more anger, narrowing once again when his grandfather didn't respond. The non-response was just as good as an admission in Morty's eyes. "I knew it, you evil piece of shit! I knew you'd get sick of me eventually! I-I-I knew you'd throw me away when I wasn't useful to you anymore and go get a better Morty to replace me!" He shook with rage, his muscles so tensed that they ached.

Rick remained silent, inhaling the drug deeply and holding it in his lungs for as long as possible before slowly exhaling another sparkling nebula of smoke.

Fed up, Morty stood on shaking legs, his emotions having run rampant and overloaded his nerves. "F-Fine, I get it! I g-guess I'll get lost, just like you want me to, Rick! Maybe this planet has some tree-people or something. They could at least provide me better company than the likes of your sorry ass ever did!" He turned, resigned to let those be the last words ever spoken to his grandfather, and stormed off across the strange purple grass. Maybe there was a forest or civilization somewhere over the horizon where he could settle and make a new life for himself.

"Wait, Morty."

Morty stopped at the sudden request, spoken quietly. It startled him into halting, more than wanting to obey the actual words. He refrained from looking back, however.

"I wanna show you something. Sit down a minute."

Morty fisted his small hands, angry, but he'd lost steam after yelling so much and getting it all out of his hormonal, adolescent system. He knew he might have been overreacting to a point, but Rick had never infuriated him so badly before. He could feel his face was hot and the rest of his body was flushed and his heart was still pounding. Idly, he wondered how bad his blood pressure was currently.

"What'a'ya wanna show me, Rick?" he grumbled, narrow eyes staring towards his grandfather's flying saucer-shaped ship he noticed parked a few yards away. If he was quick enough, maybe he could abandon Rick before Rick could abandon him?

"Sit down, Morty. Look out there for a while. You'll see," the genius scientist said calmly.

Morty huffed and turned, shoulders at an odd state of tense and sagging. It made his muscles ache with the unnatural strain. Making his way back over, he sat down with a grunt, staring out into the horizon.

"What am I supposed to see, Rick?" he grumbled. His eyes were narrowed and brows furrowed, refusing to look to the side at his grandfather. He figured it would only infuriate him again.

"You'll see, Morty. Patience," was all Rick said.

Minutes ticked by, and Morty only became more bored and irritated and tired. He finally allowed himself to glance at Rick once in a while, watching him smoke that weird stuff. It looked pretty and cool, but he didn't feel like asking what it was. It was probably a drug and Rick was getting high. Not unusual at all.

More time passed, probably fifteen minutes or so, and curiosity finally dug its claws into Morty's brain. He turned to Rick again, watching the nebulous smoke pour dreamily out of the old man's slack lips, glittering twinkles decorating the morphing colors like stars.

"Wh-What is that stuff, Rick? You—You drag me out here to watch you smoke an alien blunt or something? That what you want me to see? You getting all high? I see that shit all the time anyway, R-Rick. It's nothin' new," he said, showing his irritation in the tone of his voice.

A little smirk decorated Rick's lips, but otherwise, he remained the same, staring out into the horizon. "Nah, Morty... It—It doesn't make you high... It just calms tension and nerves. Leaves you relaxed." He took another puff, held it, and exhaled another visual cosmic delight.

Morty refrained from asking why Rick would need to feel calm and relaxed. The curiosity was there, of course, but he still kept his mouth shut. At least now he knew that his grandfather wasn't simply getting high. He let silence ring between them, punctuated only rarely by a soft swish of the grasses when a slow wind drifted around them.

The sky finally started to lighten at the horizon and Morty sighed, blinking tiredly at it. He just wanted to go home and sleep. He hated that Rick had dragged him out yet again for some weird reason that he wouldn't even elaborate on this time. Whatever it was he was supposed to see, he was getting really tired of waiting around to see it.

"Rick...how long are we—"

"Shh Morty...take a look," Rick shushed him immediately, waving the hand holding the blunt out ahead.

Morty sighed exasperatedly and turned back to the horizon.

The glow of the planet's sun slowly rose until the yellow orb peeked over the land, sending a brilliant glow over the field of purple grass. The grass waved in the warm breeze, and in the early sunlight, it shimmered with iridescent colors, beautiful, like oil on pavement. The dew on the grass was whipped by the strong breeze the warmth of the sun created, sending tiny glittering droplets up into the air to sparkle and reflect the sunlight.

It was stunningly beautiful, and Morty's eyes widened in awe.

"You see that, Morty? See all that?" Rick waved his hand holding the strange cigarette to indicate the entire scene, both down below and up into the sky, where the nebula still swirled brightly and the stars still sparkled. Space beyond the atmosphere was crystal clear, even though the sun was shining.

Morty nodded, not speaking, mouth slightly agape in amazement.

"That, Morty...that is how you make me feel......when you smile at me..."

Morty whipped his gaze to his grandfather immediately, eyes wide. Rick was still sitting there, casually leaning on one hand, cross legged and puffing on that drug, staring out into the distance, eyes half lidded.

"How I...m-make you feel...?" Morty wondered quietly, hardly able to believe those words left Rick's mouth. He never imagined Rick ever saying something so...sweet? At least, not to him.

"When you smile at me, Morty. When you smile," Rick reiterated, driving the point home into Morty's shocked brain.

The only thing the boy could think in that moment as he stared at his usually distant, asshole of a grandfather was: ' _He really meant it?_ '

Rick puffed the tension reducing drug again, making his own small nebula above his head. "Take it all in, Morty. Remember it. Don't forget how it looks, Morty. This is special, Morty...one of a kind..." he rambled a bit, his own eyes soaking in the sights before them.

Morty swallowed and turned to stare at those same sights again. The grass shimmered, the dew sparkled, the colors of the nebula swirled, and the stars shone. It was remarkably tranquil and beautiful, and both Rick and Morty sat and watched it for several long minutes, long enough for everything to sink into the young teen and leave him finally feeling more relaxed.

At length, Rick grunted and stood, flicking the glowing stub of his drug away. Morty watched as it tumbled through the air, little flecks of embers flaking off and slowly drifting earthward, dying out and turning dark. Even that was oddly beautiful.

"Did'ja get a good look, Morty?" Rick asked quietly, his usually gruff voice softened.

Morty looked up at him from where he still sat in the iridescent grass, eyes wide as though the youthful wonder for the universe never left him and turned him into a cold and bitter shell of a human being. He had to remind himself that such a thing was Rick's doing to begin with, but, in that moment, he couldn't muster the desire to be angry at him for it. He was still enamored with the beautiful scenery and those words of, " _That is how you make me feel when you smile at me,_ " bouncing around his skull.

"Uh...y-yeah, Rick. Yeah, it's—"

"Good. Come on, Morty, I got something else to show you. Got p-places to be, Morty, lets go." Rick turned and headed for the ship, and Morty rose up as well. He followed for a moment, but then turned back to watch the scenery again, staring with the awe that he couldn't shake yet. Everything in his vision...something so beautiful and serene...was how Rick felt? When Morty **smiled** at him?

He heard the door of the ship opening, but not closing, and he turned back to look at Rick. Rick was standing at the ship's door, staring at him, waiting silently for him to follow. The expression on his face was blank but patient. The whole thing was very un-Rick like, and it made Morty suspicious. He frowned and walked over to the ship, glaring at Rick the entire time. Rick got in and Morty followed, buckling in and crossing his arms over his chest.

Saying nothing, Rick started the ship, then lifted off and sailed up into the atmosphere.

"Y'know, Rick...th-that was really nice back there...really pretty," Morty began, looking out the passenger window at the planet slowly retreating into the distance before the ship turned and headed in another direction.

"Mm," was all Rick hummed in response.

"Yeah...a little **too** nice," Morty continued, turning to glare at the old man's profile. "I can't help but think you're just pulling your bullshit again, Rick. Trying to manipulate me. Tr-Trying to get back on my good side, so I'll willingly agree to more adventures with you, so-so you won't have to drug me and drag me outta bed every time." He glowered at Rick's profile, waiting for his response to the accusation.

Rick just shrugged and input some new coordinates into the ship's navigational system. "Is that wh-what you really think there, Morty?" he asked in a calm and flat tone.

"Yeah, Rick. It is," Morty replied, crossing his arms tighter and glaring harder.

"Think whatever you want to, Morty. Not gonna change what you saw or what I said," Rick told him in that same matter-of-fact tone.

Morty pouted and stared out the window of the ship, watching the stars starting to wiz by. "Wh-Where are we going now, Rick?" he wondered, irritation in his voice.

"You'll see."

Morty sighed with aggravation, scrunching back in his seat.


	3. Second Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second stop.

They ended up on another planet in another galaxy, the ship settling down on blue-green grass a few yards way from the white pebble shoreline of a crystal clear lake. Surrounding the lake on all sides stood groves of yellow pine-like trees, secluding it from whatever lay beyond. Above, in the sky, sat a gigantic planet, filling up at least a third of the view. It was a beautiful blue-grey marble mottled with white clouds. The massive swirl of a storm system took up a large portion of the surface, looking like an iris staring out into space. Further away from the giant planet sat two smaller ones, off in the distance. Even though they were far away, Morty could still see one of those planets was being orbited by a moon.

The sun for the planet Rick and Morty currently occupied was in the process of setting, already having disappeared somewhere to the left of where they stood. The yellow trees were tall and the two humans were secluded in the middle of them, so the only indication of the sun they saw were streams of yellow, orange, and purple, smearing across the sky, slightly obscuring the visuals beyond the atmosphere.

"S-So what is this one, Rick? Another pretty scene or something? Wh-What are you up to anyway?" Morty asked as they both opened the ship's creaky doors and exited. His eyes were narrow with suspicion as they watched Rick stroll around to the front of the ship and put his hands on his hips while he surveyed the scene with quiet scrutiny.

As though finding what he beheld satisfactory, Rick turned to his grandson and gave him a flat expression. "Patience, Morty, patience. You'll see."

Morty grumbled in irritation again, not sure what Rick was trying to pull with him. He knew the old man was manipulative beyond compare, so it was probably a safe bet he was up to something—that there was an underlying motivation behind what he was doing. Even so, he could not deny how lovely the environment looked around them.

They moved forward and sat quietly on the blue-green grass just bordering the white pebble shore of the lake. Rick took out his flask and downed a small sip before leaning both elbows to his crossed knees and holding the metal container lightly, staring out over the shimmering lake. It sparkled in the late evening sun, very slowly dimming as the giant ball of burning gas set over the horizon somewhere off to the left beyond the trees.

Morty couldn't help casting his grandfather quick glances, contemplating what was going through his vast mind, wondering how the old man was trying to work the visuals around them into his favor. But Morty was definitely no Rick, so what the genius scientist was up to remained a mystery to Morty no matter how hard he racked his meager brain for ideas.

Rick's demeanor was quiet and reserved, staring with silent contemplation out over the shimmering lake for a while before lifting his half-lidded gaze toward the huge planet in the sky. He stared at that too, for a while, and without averting his gaze, took another small sip from his flask.

Morty frowned at that. It wasn't unusual for Rick to be drinking from that flask, but it **was** unusual for him to only partake of small sips. Usually, he'd downright guzzle whatever choice of alcohol was in it at the time. The old man's behavior was continuing to perplex Morty, so he decided to just sigh and take in the scenery as well, not knowing what else to do and not wanting to say anything at the moment.

They sat that way for at least ten minutes. Silent. Contemplative. Serene.

Morty couldn't help but remember the first planet they had visited a short time ago, with the purple iridescent grass field and the nebula and stars in the sky. It was so stunningly beautiful.

_"That, Morty...that is how you make me feel......when you smile at me..."_

Rick's gently spoken words echoed in his head over and over. Was that really true? Did Morty really affect Rick in such a monumental way? Did Morty actually make Rick feel the equivalent of such a scene just from smiling at him? How odd. How most likely untrue.

But...

A small bit of warmth spread through Morty's chest and cheeks, and he made sure to turn his face away, just in case Rick could see. No need to alert the old man that what he said actually started to affect him.

"Morty," Rick's voice spoke up from the small few feet away where he sat.

Morty started and turned to him, eyes widening a bit at the gentle tone he used.

"It's starting, Morty. Take a look," Rick told him, staring skyward

Morty aimed his vision upward and sucked in a quiet breath. The first few stars were coming out through the darkening sky, shining brightly through the purples and reds of the planet's sunset. But that was not what took Morty's breath away. Intermittent streaks of white light fell from the heavens, showering down like, well, like a meteor shower. Their tips were burning so brightly, they shined like pinpoints of white light until they broke up and faded away like dying sparklers, only for more to cascade through the sky in their wake. Most streaked white, but a rare few were orange or yellow, and even rarer was green. The green ones were the prettiest, Morty dazedly thought as he stared up in awe of the spectacle.

In his peripheral, he noticed the still surface of the lake that no longer shimmered in the sunlight had instead become as smooth as glass, reflecting the entirety of the darkening sky like a mirror. The giant planet and the two smaller neighboring ones, the stars, the scarce few stringy clouds, and the streaks of the meteor shower all shimmered back at him clear as crystal through the mirror-like lake, and it was certainly a sight to behold.

A moment later, a flock of that planet's equivalent of birds took flight out of the piney yellow trees nearby and soared across Morty's vision, their excited chitters adding a pleasant, near giggly type noise to the energetic and beautiful scene.

Morty's heart couldn't help picking up in jubilation, a smile blooming across his face and lightly crinkling the corners of his eyes. He also couldn't help the happy giggle that slipped from his throat, entirely taken in by everything in sight and getting lost in the moment.

"You—You see all that, Morty? Y-Ya soakin' in all in?" Rick asked, a light quirk to his lips as well before he hid it behind another little sip from his flask.

"Yeah, Rick. Wow, i-it's so amazing," Morty replied, eyes fixed above.

"Everything you see, Morty...everything, all around...that—that's how I feel when you—when you laugh, Morty."

Mirth was dropped to be replaced with shock in less than a blink of an eye. Morty's head turned slowly, forced to when his eyes froze straight ahead and he couldn't move them in the sockets to save his life.

"Wh...When I...huh?" he mumbled, flabbergasted.

Rick sighed, rolling his eyes, and made a slow hand gesture, rotating his wrist in a circle. "Wh-When you laugh, Morty. This...all of this..." he indicated toward their entire surroundings, "...is how I feel. Pay—Pay attention once in a while. Fuck," he grumbled, taking another sip of whatever was in his flask.

Morty could only blink dumbly at his grandfather for a solid thirty seconds. And then slowly, the gears started turning, and he finally looked back toward the scenery. So, Rick was taking him to exotic places and showing him special events in correlation to how Morty made him feel? A giddy sort of tickle wound through his belly and pounded in his chest, and he bit his lip to keep a grin from forming as he stared at the falling stars, trying to pick out any that turned green. How unexpectedly...nice? Sweet? Morty couldn't put a descriptor to it. He just knew that he was happy, in that moment, to know that when he laughed, Rick would feel just as good as the current environment looked.

Though, again, suspicion reared its ugly head. Rick never did anything without motivation, without a need to gain something out of it. Morty knew that Rick was doing all of this in order to at least regain his favor and continue to go on adventures. But at the same time, why go to all of this trouble? Why cart his measly behind across the cosmos to just show him wondrous sights that coincide with how Morty made Rick feel about certain things? Why was Rick **trying** to win back Morty's favor? Rick was...well, Rick. He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, regardless if he received anyone's blessing or not. Rick didn't care if Morty wanted to or approved of going on adventures, he would just drag him along, whether he wanted to go or not. Rick didn't care about Morty's feelings on anything. Rick didn't care about anyone...not even himself. And Morty...well...Morty was usable...and expendable.

If there was one thing he learned when he discovered that there were infinite dimensions and infinite universes, and in turn, infinite Mortys, was that he was just as replaceable as a light bulb. If he burnt out or stopped shining as brightly as Rick wanted, Rick could easily throw him out and go get another, shiny new Morty. A Morty that would listen to him and praise his god-like knowledge and inventiveness without question, without reservation. A Morty that would never talk back or be a nuisance—one that would shine brightly, just to illuminate Rick.

Why Rick even kept him around anymore was a mystery to Morty. He always talked back, always argued, always ended up bothering Rick in some way or another that got the old man riled up and angry. Morty was often a slave to his emotions as well, letting them get the better of him in times of stress or when he noticed others in need. Then again, almost every time his empathy drove him to act with kindness, it blew up in his face...and subsequently Rick's face too. And he was a klutz to boot, constantly bungling missions or screwing up jobs because he either tripped over his own feet or wasn't paying attention to crucial instructions in the first place. Morty was...well...he was a fuckup. Plain and simple.

So that Rick was doing all of this 'showing visuals as a metaphor for feelings for Morty'...it just didn't make sense...

Unless—

A loud grunt caught Morty off-guard, and his thoughts derailed instantly. He turned to see Rick standing and brushing off the back of his lab coat before taking one more sip from his flask and returning it to its rightful spot inside the inner breast pocket.

"All right, Morty. Ti-Time to go. Got places to be, Morty, get up. Come on," Rick grumbled, turning and heading back for the ship once more.

That time, Morty stood without argument and trotted along behind his grandfather, sliding into the ship and buckling in. He said not a word as Rick plopped into the driver's seat and turned the engine over. Not a syllable left his lips when Rick steered the ship skyward and they left the stratosphere, heading toward another unknown destination.

The only thing Morty could think was, whatever Rick was up to, it wasn't so bad. He was interested in seeing where else they would go, if the visuals for feelings lesson was over now, or if there was more to come.

A languid smile crept across his lips, and he turned to face out the passenger window, trying to hide it.

This was the kind of adventure he could most definitely handle.


	4. Third Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The third stop in Rick's bid to regain Morty's favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short chapter this time. Hopefully the next one will make up for it.

Rick and Morty traveled through the endless expanse of space for a while, both quiet and contemplative. It was almost disturbing how silent Rick was. Usually, he'd at least make a few quips about whatever they happened to be passing at the time, and usually, Morty wouldn't pay much attention. Morty would still hear the old man speaking, though, and it was often a comforting sound that would lull him, especially on long trips. But now, only the hum of the ship's engines and the occasional shudder that would rattle the frame and jostle the loose cans and bottles lying around the floor could be heard.

Finally, Rick reached out and throttled back the ship, sliding the gearshift upward toward the dash and slowing their momentum. They cruised to a halt, the pace so slow and the hum of the space car's engines so low, that the entire stopping process seemed sweetly gentle.

Morty let out a quiet, contented sigh, just from that, glad that for once, there seemed to be no reason for Rick to slam on the brakes and give them both whiplash.

Out ahead, he spotted what seemed to be a huge expanse of lonely asteroids, drifting in slow motion through space. They were pitted and rough-looking, all sorts of shapes and sizes, and nearly filling his entire vision through the dome of the ship.

He hesitated to say anything and break the silence that had sat between him and his grandfather the entire trip there, but curiosity always got the better of him.

"Wh-Where are we now, Rick? Is—Is this another thing you w-want to show me?" he asked, keeping his voice low.

Sighing through his nose with a soft puff of air, Rick reached back for his flask and unscrewed the lid before taking another small sip from it. "Take—Take a look out there, Morty. Take it all in. Look at everything, Morty, all of it." He sat back in his seat, leaning his head back against the headrest as though settling in for a long nap. Though, his lidded eyes never once left the expanse of the asteroid field out ahead.

Morty watched him for a moment, taking the movements and words in and processing them slowly, then did as his grandfather instructed, and turned to look out through the ship's dome again.

He watched those asteroids tumbling along in slow motion through space, out in the middle of nowhere. It seemed so...empty...so lonely...so cold and forgotten. He wondered if something had once been in this part of space. Had there used to be a planet there? Was it once alive and thriving, full of life and more beautiful scenery like Rick had already shown him?

Morty supposed it didn't matter now, what used to be there, if anything at all. He supposed what mattered was what he was looking at, since that's what Rick wanted him to see.

One of the asteroids drifted a little too close to another, and they collided. It wasn't violent, in the sense that they exploded, but it was more of a slow-motion crumble of both of them. They fragmented and drifted apart, small shards of rock and ice tumbling away, glittering like tears.

It felt like such a sorrowful ending to both of those asteroids' existences. They crumbling to pieces as they wept frozen tears, out in the cold loneliness of space.

Even though it was just a natural phenomenon that happened every millisecond throughout the entirety of the universe—multiverse, even—in that moment, to Morty, it just seemed so...

"See that, Morty?" Rick asked softly.

Morty turned to him, eyes glossy for some reason. He watched Rick take in a breath, his thin chest rising slightly, raising his hands that were laying over it, fingers interlaced. It looked like a lazy, casual position, but Morty couldn't help the thought that Rick was trying to shield his heart against something, even though his hands didn't quite rest over top of where the organ was located in his chest.

"Yeah, Rick," he replied, voice just as soft as his grandfather's. He hoped the lump in his throat that his words had to pass over didn't give away how much the scene impacted him. It was...it was just space rocks after all.

"That out there, Morty...all'a that..." Rick said quietly, nodding his head toward the asteroid field.

Morty held his breath.

"That's how I feel, Morty... That's how I feel when you're sad."

Along with his exhaled breath, a tear streamed down Morty's cheek.

" _Hhoh...Rick..._ " he breathed, face scrunching up. More tears followed the first, and he couldn't turn off the faucet. His small hands wiped at his eyes and cheeks, still soft and rounded with youth. "R-Rick...I-I'm so sorry, Rick... I-I—"

"Ahhtuttutt..." Rick shushed softly, closing his eyes to his grandson's emotions. "I'm not done yet, Morty. Got more to show you. Save the waterworks, I'm not in the mood." He sighed and withdrew his flask again, taking a bigger gulp that time and hissing quietly when the burn moved down his throat to sit comfortably in his stomach, like an old friend giving him a hug.

"B-But, Rick, I—" Morty tried again. He looked back and forth between the lonely asteroid field, with the shards of rock and ice glittering like the tears on his cheeks, and his grandfather, who was sitting forward in his seat now and reaching to restart the engines of the ship.

"Save it, Morty. There's more to come," Rick promised, a somber tone to his gravely voice.

As best as he could, Morty tried to comply with Rick's soft command. He wiped his eyes and sniffed up his sadness, breathing through his mouth slowly and evenly. Those breaths shuddered for a short while, and a few hiccups escaped too, but eventually, he took back control and calmed himself.

He refrained from asking where they were headed next.


	5. Fourth Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The forth stop on Rick's emotional adventure with Morty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am by no means an expert on celestial bodies and how things work in regards to them. The things I've described in this chapter may or may not be possible in real life, but they're definitely possible in fiction. Haha! Please take my space-stuff with a grain of salt and just enjoy it as-is. Thanks!

Their next stop on their emotional adventure had Rick and Morty slowing to a halt facing toward a medium-sized planet. The orb looked cold and dusty brown, dotted with only a few small craters here and there. It sat quietly by itself, no other celestial bodies around as far as the eye could see. An interstellar cloud the color of dirty rust hung thick in space further out, creating a brownish backdrop to the lonely planet. It looked almost like an artist had dabbed browns, reds, and yellows onto a wide paintbrush and expertly swiped it over the canvas of space, back and forth, blending the colors seamlessly, before pressing the brush down and creating soft pillowy bits in strategic areas. The cloud itself was breathtaking, but the planet looked rather sad and lonely in front of it, its monotoned brown uninspired.

Morty marveled at the sight for a while, but the longer they sat there, and nothing was happening, he became too curious, and finally broke the silence.

"Wh-Where are we now, Rick?" he asked quietly, turning his gaze to his grandfather. He felt like he was in some sort of weird version of _A Christmas Carol_ , but instead of being taken to different places in the past, present, and future, he was being whisked across the cosmos and being shown glimpses of something deep and special about Rick. It was kind of similar. At least, he thought so, anyway.

"Wh-What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Rick took out his flask again and sipped at it for a moment, staring straight ahead through the ship's domed windshield. "Right there, Morty. The only thing there is **to** look at, dumbass." The insult was toothless and Morty remained unaffected by it.

"Well...yeah, Rick. But I mean, uh...wh-what am I supposed to be seeing here? Th-There's just a planet and a cloud," Morty said, turning to look back just to make sure that was really all there was to it.

"I-It's a dead planet, Morty. It's dead," Rick told him, gravely voice monotoned.

The boy looked back at him, eyes widening, but eyebrows still quirked with confusion. "Oh...okay...but..."

Rick never once glanced his way, not even during their entire trip to where they were now. He just tilted his chin upward, indicating out toward the lifeless planet. "Just watch it, Morty. Keep watching it. Don't look away, Morty," he ordered, his voice still oddly quiet, but tinged with what Morty could only describe as subtle anticipation—not the excited kind of anticipation, but a more morose kind.

Morty chose not to voice any reply; he just simply obeyed, turning and staring out at the dead planet and wondering what he was supposed to be seeing. Was it the fact that it **was** dead? Was that why he had to look at it? Like some sort of 'staring death in the face' kind of thing? But he had to stare death in the face all the time during their adventures anyway. It wasn't something new to Morty, that was for sure. And that didn't align with the other things Rick had shown him over the last several hours. Rick had taken him to places and showed him things to correspond with the way Rick felt when affected by Morty in some way. So, how did this dead planet make Rick feel? Or more, what was it about Morty that made Rick feel like that dead planet? Was that what he was supposed to contemplate?

Why did Rick seem so much more complicated to him now? More nuanced and deep. Even though Morty knew Rick liked to keep his emotions bottled up and crammed into the back of the mini deep freezer that was his heart, he realized now that the old man could still **feel**. It was just that Rick tried to keep his emotions as detached as possible, and in turn kept himself detached from everyone and everything that could affect his emotions. And when detachment didn't work, he'd drown it all out with alcohol, drugs, and sex.

Morty knew that Rick hated to feel things that were anything other than cold and analytical facts, or, well, pleasure. Obviously, Rick liked that too. But it was part of the reason it was so hard to connect with his grandfather, despite how much he wanted to. But Rick was an asshole and Morty knew it.

Even still...

Even still, Rick was Morty's grandfather. And Morty loved him, despite his many, many flaws. It wasn't even an obligational love one would have for one's dickish relative that they otherwise never got along with. It was genuine at this point. Because despite everything Rick put Morty through, despite the fear, pain, and anguish he could and usually did experience during their adventures, underlying it all was the mere fact that, in the end, he wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Just knowing there was a vast multiverse out there to explore left Morty feeling anxious for the next time Rick would blow open his bedroom door and drag him out of bed in the middle of the night. The thought of going to school and completing assignments and tests and attending assemblies was so boring after knowing what could be waiting for him through another swirling green portal. Thinking about having to get a job at a corner store or fast food joint was appalling when he knew that out there, he and Rick could wheel and deal like no other and amass whatever fortunes they wanted in whatever currency they fancied at the time.

It was Rick and Morty, the space adventuring duo, that truly made Morty happy—despite all the things that could and did go wrong over half of the time.

To think that out of anyone Rick could have picked, he picked simple little Morty to be his companion through thick and thin...

Morty's heart swelled with pride and joy.

True, true, it was also because Rick needed Morty's brainwaves to hide from the galactic government, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Besides, they did a lot more things than just sneaking around and avoiding the galactic government. They visited different planets and different dimensions to gather supplies for Rick's inventions. They adventured through the cosmos, doing a little of this and a little of that. And sometimes, they didn't even do anything at all. Rick and Morty, not doing anything except watching inter-dimensional cable for hours on end. Those were some of the best adventures of all. And those adventures never required camouflaging brainwaves. And the fact that Rick picked Morty to sit and watch TV with for hours?

Well...it definitely meant there was more to their partnership than just a need to hide from the government.

Morty smiled with his thoughts, happy to have come to that conclusion. A happy conclusion, despite staring at a dead planet for twenty minutes straight. He wondered if that was what Rick wanted after all—for Morty to contemplate everything and realize that staying with Rick and continuing their adventures was a good thing. It was true that they would argue and fight, sometimes even physically. And it was true that more often than naught, Morty's life was dangerously close to being cut short. But all in all, Rick would be there to save him and patch him back up if need be. Morty definitely would prefer the adventures, dangerous or not, over the boring mundanity of modern-day life on Earth. School sucked, and he had no friends. Even his family kept themselves distant from him most of the time, both physically and emotionally.

Rick...Rick was all he really had. Rick was the only one who paid any sort of attention to Morty for any length of time. Rick listened when he talked, even if he ended up rolling his eyes a majority of the time. Rick usually caved in and gave Morty what he wanted every time he begged for something. Rick spent time with him for no real reason and even seemed to enjoy being in his company. And who's room did Rick stumble into late at night, drunk off his ass and collapsing onto the bed, mumbling about random nonsense only to pass out and sleep there for the rest of the night? No one else's but Morty's.

Rick... Rick...was Morty's world... His multiverse... His best friend... His everything.

His chest swelled with emotion, and Morty bit his lip.

"H-Hey, Rick—"

"Shut up, Morty," Rick growled, cutting him off, a harder edge to his tone than he'd had in a while. "I said watch. For once in your goddamn life, fucking listen."

Morty swallowed and quickly flicked his eyes back toward the dead planet, having started to turn toward his grandfather a moment ago. He sighed softly. Yes, Rick could most definitely be an asshole. And he was, a majority of the time.

"Watch carefully, Morty," Rick spoke up on his own, voice lowered back down to a grumble. "Don't look away."

Morty could hear him take another swig of alcohol, the liquid sloshing in the metal flask.

"Of all the things to witness, Morty...this is more important than anything else right now," Rick went on. "You can't look away, Morty...not for a second. Don't even blink."

The intensity of his voice thickened the air inside the cabin of the ship. A heat seemed to stifle Morty's breaths and sweat started to form along his brow. He swallowed heavily, a tingling sort of anticipation forming in his guts.

"Bear witness, Morty. You gotta watch. G-Gotta keep looking," Rick told him, his voice reflecting the stark need to **do as told**.

Morty swallowed again and scooted forward a little in his seat unconsciously, eyes glued to the lifeless planet haloed by a rusty interstellar cloud.

A thin, ragged crack snaked down across the surface of the planet, curling from the northern pole all the way down to the equator.

Morty gasped and leaned forward more, on the edge of his seat and gripping it tightly in his small hands.

"Don't look away, Morty. You gotta watch it. Don't miss a thing, Morty. Not a single thing," Rick's gravelly voice reached across the space in a loud whisper.

Morty's hands blindly scrabbled with the seatbelt and clicked it loose, the strap withdrawing back into the retractor with a hushed _zzfffwip_ noise followed by a clank when the latch hit the metal frame of the ship. His breaths came shorter and faster, adrenaline pumping between his ears, making his head buzz a bit.

"Keep staring, Morty," Rick's voice intoned with quiet urgency, fueling Morty's nervous excitement. "Watch closely."

Another spider crack sliced through the dusty brown planet, sectioning off a quarter of the northern hemisphere.

Another gasp left Morty's throat, dry from breathing through his open mouth the entire time.

More cracks tore through the planet's surface, concentrating on the upper left hemisphere, until several small chunks of the surface crust broke away and began drifting off into space.

Morty lurched forward in his seat and gripped the dashboard in front of him, his sweaty fingers making a dull gritting sound when they dragged along the smooth plastic surface. His eyes, that were already larger and conveyed more innocence than he had anymore, rounded out even more, in awe of the spectacle before him.

What...? What could that possibly mean?

A dull rumble shook the ship around them followed by a deep and thundering BOOM as the dead planet coughed and ejected a third of its mass slowly into space. The brown chunks of rock and debris were massive and floated outward as though the planetoid were exploding in extremely slow motion.

When the creaking of the ship eased off, Rick's voice spoke up again, quiet but urgent. "Keep watching, Morty. You gotta watch this."

Morty couldn't even pull his eyes away if he wanted to. He'd seen planets being destroyed before, plenty of times, in fact. He'd even pulled the trigger on a few of them himself. It was always a spectacle of bright lights and fire and rocky debris. But this time, for whatever reason, this planet was different. It was already dead and no one had set off a bomb big enough to decimate it. It was just...falling apart...on its own. It seemed so horribly sad—pathetic even. But Rick had already shown him what he felt like when Morty was sad. Why would he do it a second time? Unless this was how Rick felt when he was sad himself? That was redundant though, and Rick was never one to be redundant. So what was Morty supposed to be getting out of something so brutally empty and meaningless as a planet in the middle of nowhere falling to pieces?

The rest of the planet that was still relatively solid split clean through with deep cracks as another rumbling BOOM shook the ship and rattled the empty bottles and cans together lightly. The soft clinks and tink-tinks danced around Morty's hearing while the ship rocked very slightly, just a soft sway, through the shockwave that rippled outward in all directions from the crumbling planet.

It split. It cracked. Chunks floated away. More and more crust and mantle pulled away from the whole, revealing a view deep into the celestial body. The protective layering crumbling away revealed the hot, glowing inner core, and Morty gasped once more, jerking forward to bring his face so close to the the windscreen of the ship, he could see his partial reflection staring back at him. He looked past it though, staring wide-eyed at such a rare phenomenon.

Every time he'd seen a planet blow up, it was always so fast and violent and messy. This time, it was in slow motion, like the thing was taking its sweet time to rot and decay. As if it had nothing better to do for the rest of eternity.

"Pay attention, Morty. Watch."

Watch, he did.

The bright yellow inner core oozed outward without the casing of the outer core and mantel to house it any longer. It bled out into the vacuum of space, dripping, gooping, like mercury, turning into an amorphous blob that soon slowed its spread to a crawl. The bright heat of the core dimmed, slowly cooling and dying, solidifying as it crawled outward in slow motion, like a hand, reaching out in a last ditch effort to connect with something, anything, in order to find comfort in those last few seconds of life. But it never found that comfort in the cold clutches of space, and the heat finally faded. The molten iron and rock core cooled, and it became just another lifeless grey stone, left to tumble aimlessly though the vast expanse of the cosmos.

Morty slowly eased back away from the dashboard, eyes watching the last of the planet tumble apart until it wasn't even recognizable as something that used to be a solid sphere. His breaths were shallow, and his heart was pounding. His palms and feet were sweaty and tingly. The seat cushioned him like it always had, but he could barely feel the padding at his back and under his behind, only hear the gentle creak of the springs giving under his weight.

The silence was so loud it buzzed in his ears.

"Did you see it, Morty...?" Rick's voice broke through the hush, and it startled Morty so much, it could have just as easily been the crack of a whip. "Did you watch everything?" he asked. His gravely voice was still low, monotoned, nearly whispered.

"Yeh—" Morty started, then coughed when his voice caught in his throat. He tried again after swallowing a few times. "Y-Y-Yeah, Rick..."

"..." Rick opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated. Finally, he asked, "You saw **all** of it?"

Morty took that as his cue to finally turn to view his grandfather. The old man was still reclined in his seat casually, but Morty knew better than to think Rick was comfortable. He could see the tension in his legs and arms, and he could see how hard Rick was gripping his flask, his bony knuckles turned white with the pressure.

"Y-Yeah, Rick... I...I-I saw all of it..."

Rick nodded and tipped the flask to his lips, taking several long gulps. When he pulled it away with a wet pop, the liquid inside the metal container sloshed a lot more hollowly.

He extended his arm, pointing with his flask out through the windshield, indicating the new debris field that was once a planet. "Everything you just witnessed, Morty...all of it," he began, his voice sounding just as hollow as the alcohol in his flask. "Every last detail you soaked in..." A pregnant pause hung in the air when he quieted and stared out ahead with just a little too much glaze over his half-lidded eyes. "That is how I feel......when you tell me......you hate me."

After all of Morty's previous contemplations...he...he wasn't expecting...!

He whirled in his seat, eyes flying wide and tears immediately rising to the edges of his bottom lids. "Oh...R-Rick...! N-No, I—!"

"Shut up, Morty," Rick grumbled, glaring at the debris field now.

"But Rick, I—! I-I'm so—" Morty tried again, rising up to one knee on the seat and the opposite foot to the floor, partially standing in the ship.

"I said can it, Morty!" Rick barked, slamming a fist to the door frame.

A few bottles clinked together from the shudder the impact caused.

"I-I-I never meant—! Rick! Please!" Morty begged, tears streaming his cheeks now and reaching out toward his grandfather hesitantly, like trying to placate a wild animal enough for him to approach and touch it.

"Don't!" Rick snapped, finally turning and bracing a hand out, pushing against his grandson's chest to keep him at arm's length. "I'm not fucking done yet, Morty! Don't you start your shit now! I'm not finished!"

"But, Rick, please, I—!" the boy whined and sobbed. His small hands reached up to clasp over top of Rick's large bony hand pressing into his sternum and held it tenderly. "I'm sor—"

Rick yanked his hand back like it was burned. "Shut the fuck up, Morty! I told you, I'm not done yet! Save your blubbery bullshit for later; I don't wanna fuckin' hear it right now!" he snarled.

Morty bawled brokenly, cupping his face in his hands, feeling utterly dejected with his grandfather's scathing words. All he wanted to do was apologize. All he wanted to do was make things better. He had no idea...no clue...never an ounce of insight to indicate what he said to Rick meant anything at all. But apparently, the things he said to Rick did count. His words **did** matter. And they mattered a fuck-load more than he ever dreamed possible.

How could he—a whiny, measly, fuckup of a Morty—possibly affect his Rick so much that with three little words, he could essentially break his h—

"We got one more stop, Morty," Rick interrupted his thoughts, voice back down to an irritated grumble. "One more, and then I'm done. Keep your shit in check until it's over—you got me, Morty? Shut your trap until this adventure is over, you hear me?"

It took all of his effort to reign in his tears and choked-off sobs. After all, he didn't want Rick to feel like that sad, empty asteroid field again. "Mm-hmm..." he hummed, wiping his face with the sides of his hands and plopping back into the passenger seat.

With numb, shaking fingers, he drew the seatbelt across his chest and lap and buckled back in, his breaths still hitching in his throat.

"Oh-k-kay, R-Rick..." he managed to say, voice just as shaky as his hands, but empty, as though his soul had bled out with his tears.

"One more stop, Morty," Rick told him, voice a little more gentle. "Let's go."

"K...'Kay..."

Rick engaged the accelerator once more, turning the wheel and steering them away toward another unknown destination.

Dread spread through Morty's veins like poison. He drew his feet up onto the edge of the seat and tucked his face against his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs in a self-hug. This whole adventure started off so beautiful, so pleasant. Now it was turning into a heartbreaking nightmare. Then again...wasn't that how most of their adventures went anyway?

Whatever.

He just wanted it to end.


	6. Rick and Morty Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final stop in Rick and Morty's emotional adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I am no expert on space and how it works. Things I've described in this chapter don't really work like that in real life, but as far as cartoon physics and fiction goes, it'll do.
> 
> Please enjoy the last chapter of my first Rick and Morty story!

Another hour or so of traveling had passed by quietly for Rick and Morty.

Morty, trying to keep himself in check as his grandfather ordered, found it difficult to stay quiet for the first twenty minutes. Resignedly, he had kept his mouth shut, though, and dejectedly stared out of the passenger window the entire time. Through forced practice, he pushed his thoughts and feelings on what had transpired back at the dead planet into the back of his mind, not letting himself ponder over it.

Many a time, Morty had been told, " _Don't think about it_ ," by Rick, and that was just what he did. By not thinking about it, it kept the mind and body distanced from the pain and discomfort of reality. Even though that was Rick's definite go-to—along with drugs and alcohol—to wipe away whatever needed silenced, it wasn't Morty's favorite technique to deal with things. He would rather work things out and understand why he felt the way he did and come to sensible and satisfactory conclusions that would allow him to live with any troubling memories.

There was always the exception, however, and this time was one of those times. True, it wasn't so horrible as that time he'd accidentally committed the genocide of a tiny alien species when he'd sneezed on them, but Rick had told him to keep everything at bay until their adventure was over. So Morty would do that, simply by not thinking about it...for the time being.

His head full of thoughts of not thinking, Morty sighed and watched his warm breath spread a soft fog along the passenger window that faded slowly back to clear glass. Stars and other cosmic bodies zipped past at a blinding pace, but his dull eyes barely registered the sights.

He was tired. At the start of this whole thing, he had been barely able to sleep as it was before Rick broke into his room for the thousandth time to drag (and drug) him away. It felt like they had been awake and traveling for over a day now, but he was sure it wasn't really that long. At most, it had probably only been four or five hours, but still, it **felt** like much longer. His eyes drooped and his body felt heavy, his breaths slowing and the artificial gravity in the ship weighing down on him, making him sag in the seat.

"Morty!" Rick's voice yelled abruptly, followed by a startling swat to his shoulder, and Morty jerked and sat straight up, eyes flying open and gasping in surprise.

"I'm—I'm awake! I'm awake!" he shouted in alarm, hands gripping tightly onto the seat cushion and eyes swiveling directly toward his grandfather, round like a deer in headlights.

A short, low chuckle ticked his ears, then a soft grunt as Rick cleared his throat.

"We-We're here, Morty. Check it out. Look." Rick waved a hand forward, indicating out in front of the ship.

Morty turned and looked, the tension leaving his muscles after realizing he must have dozed off for a moment before Rick so rudely woke him again. A soft gasp erupted from his throat before his brain even registered that he wanted to make such a noise.

Through the clear dome of the ship, a view unlike any other greeted Morty's once fatigued eyes. Swirls of green in various earthy shades dusted with peaks of white flowed over the expanse of space in front of him. It resembled a turbulent ocean made of clouds, the tips of the waves white while the dips in the cloudy waters were those shades of earthy greens.

"Take a look, Morty... Look at it," Rick told him softly. The grumbly edge to his tone was still there, but it seemed a bit lightened compared to their previous stop.

" _Wh-Whoa..._ " Morty whispered, eyeing up more details about the beautiful nebula before him.

The most prominent feature was a gigantic formation of color in the center of the phenomenon. Reds, varying from deep blood to candy apple, ghosted like an etherial specter, haloed by white-ish peaks of the greens surrounding it. A smaller bit of the reds was sectioned off on its own beneath the larger formation, its colors just as vibrant.

The pinpricks of stars littered the nebula, too numerous and tightly spaced to count. Some were large and others tiny, distant points of light, barely detectible. What seemed unique about them was, most of them emitted delicate blue light with pure white centers. But there were a few that shone red with pink centers, and some, even more rare, were purple with pinkish centers.

It all looked like another artist's work, vibrant brushstrokes and colors that took one's breath away, with more and more details emerging the longer one observed it.

"Wow, Rick..." Morty mumbled in awe of the stunning array of greens, reds, and whites of the nebula. "I-It's so beautiful..." He tore his eyes away from the spectacle, so glad for it after such a depressing couple of previous celestial visits. It more reminded him of the first place Rick had brought him with the purple grass, sunrise, and nebula in the sky. He was very happy for the view, especially after that dusty planet that fell apart and bled its core out into the dead of space.

His round eyes found his grandfather sitting casually once again, one hand on the steering wheel of the ship. A smile was ghosted across Rick's lips while the old man stared at the nebula too. Morty smiled at that sight as well. He had figured for a while now that Rick had become indifferent to the many different celestial sights that could be encountered in space. The man had probably seen it all and then some—had probably even created...or destroyed...many himself. The fact that he could look at a natural phenomenon and still find it lovely warmed Morty's heart. It meant that Rick was not completely dead inside, as many might think, as Morty sometimes thought. That despite being god-like in intelligence, cunning, and resilience, Rick was still human.

Morty's smile broadened at his grandfather, his eyes shining happily. He hoped this stop was going to be more positive than the last two, but from what he'd seen so far, it already was.

Rick turned his head slightly in Morty's direction and smirked, showing a little teeth. "Come-on, let's get a closer look, huh?"

Morty nodded eagerly, grinning fully, his heart thrumming excitedly. "Sure, Rick!"

Rick chuckled at his grandson's youthful pep and shifted the ship into gear, engaging the drive and propelling them much deeper into the clouds.

They came to a slow rest inside a particularly dense area of nebula. All around them, thick clouds of forest greens swirled into peaks of olive then white like a frothing ocean shore. Distantly, above and below, if Morty stretched and squinted, he could see the deep reds of the nebula's two sections. They had nestled in between them.

"Check it out, UURP Morty," Rick said as he put the ship in park and leaned back in his seat again. His hand reached into his lab coat and withdrew the flask, uncapping and taking a sip, trying to savor what little was left. "Look there, Morty." He pointed with his free hand toward several far off masses of olive green that were drawing out from different areas of the cloud and coiling around until converging into one point. "Watch that. L-Look what it does, Morty."

The boy did as instructed, watching the colors stretching out and thinning like a rubber band. He noticed the central point of the converging tendrils of cloud was bulging and spinning, accumulating more and more mass, the color changing from very light olive green to stark white.

"Wh-What's that, Rick?" Morty asked, eyes glued to the sight. "What's it doing?"

"Jus-Just watch, Morty. Soak it all up."

Unable to find irritation with the non-answer because the view was just so darn cool, Morty continued to watch as told.

The swirling white drew more and more matter in toward itself, beginning to spin faster and faster and compacting in on itself bit by bit. The ball of white cloud began to glow, softly at first, then slowly brighter and brighter the faster it spun. In the next moment, it collapsed in size by a quarter, the instantaneous event sending a bluish pulse wave out through the cloud and gently rattling the ship with the deep rumbling sound.

Morty gasped and reached out to hold onto the door frame and the edge of the seat, steadying himself. More clinks and tinks of the bottles and cans laying on the ship's floor rattled around, but he ignored it in favor of witnessing what was going on out ahead.

The tight ball of matter spun faster and tighter, drawing more mass in from the nebula around it, the several long tendrils of olive green still feeding into it, but stretching thinner and thinner the harder the ball pulled. The light it emitted began shining brighter and the object pulsed once more, shrinking in size and sending out another bluish shockwave to smooth out the clouds of matter and rock the ship.

It spun faster. It shone brighter. It pulsed and shrank again, rattling the ship with a harder shockwave than the previous two.

Morty swallowed with nerves, eyes staring so hard, the bright light felt like it was boring holes into his retinas. He was sure Rick wouldn't put them in harm's way, but the way the ship rattled with that last wave made him start to sweat. Or was that the heat rising in the vehicle?

"Look, Morty, look!" Rick told him, urgently, as though he was afraid Morty had taken his eyes off the spectacle. "Right there, Morty! This is the most important part!"

Morty swallowed dryly and leaned forward in his seat as though that would give him a better view.

"Of all the shit I showed you tonight, Morty...out of all of it...this is the most important. The biggest deal, Morty, just this! Watch! Watch!"

Morty's heart hammered in his chest, and the sweat trickled down his temples. It was getting really hot, and that shining ball was getting brighter and brighter.

And then...

No science classes or boring lectures or paragraphs in textbooks could actually do justice to the visual that Morty beheld. Nature at its rawest, at its finest, could not ever be described with mere words or still images. Even his brain had a rough time comprehending the signals from his eyes in that moment, but he took it all in anyway.

The pinpoint of hot, white light pulsed one final time, sending out another blue shockwave, only to explode in size and engulf a majority of the view before Rick and Morty. The surface of the molten ball roiled and churned steadily, flares dipping casually out into space only to dive back into the mass. It was bright white in the center, haloed with a shining blue light toward the edges. Just like all the other celestial bodies in that particular nebula.

A star...had just been born.

Water coated Morty's vision, and he had to blink rapidly and finally tear his eyes away, the brand new celestial body entirely too bright to observe any longer. The heat enveloping the ship was verging on too much to bear, and he panted, wiping his eyes and fanning his yellow shirt to try to cool off.

"Huh-Holy shit, Rick!" he gasped.

Rick only chuckled deeply in his throat. "Yeah, I guess we parked a little too close huh? Hang on, Mo-Morty." He jerked the shifter situated in front of the center console into reverse and pressed the gearshift handle into first gear. The trashcan engines rotated 180 degrees and fired up, gently reversing them away from the new sun. They backed far enough away that the intense heat eased off to a warm summer day, then halted once more. The new star now took up only a third of their view, and in being further away with a more concise perspective, it looked even more stunning.

"Wow, Rick..." Morty breathed, his heart still pounding, and his mouth still dry. "Th-That was amazing!" He turned to look at his grandpa, grinning in joy, thrilled to see another small smile on the old man's lips. He wondered what such an event could possibly mean to Rick—how something so magnificent could portray anything that Morty could do or say to him. Instead of trying to contemplate it himself, he decided to wait patiently for Rick to tell him, as he had all the other times on their current adventure.

But when the old man sat contentedly for a long while, gazing with half-lidded eyes at the bright newborn star, Morty finally did feel a little impatient.

"Rick?" he asked cautiously, gazing at him with clear want of his curiousness to be satisfied.

Rick blinked and looked over at him, now staring at Morty as a contemplative look rested across his brow. He hummed softly and chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, staring unblinkingly at his grandson.

A long, silent moment passed between them, and then Rick moved, reaching for the gearshift and pressing it into first gear, engaging the engines once again. The ship shuddered slightly as it began to reverse even further out of the dense clouds.

"Rick?" Morty asked again, unsure of what was happening. The other times, Rick would tell him the meaning of what he witnessed by now. This time, he was hesitating. "R-Rick, what's—"

"So you saw that whole thing, right, Morty?" Rick asked suddenly, keeping his eyes on the rear-view mirror so as not to back into anything more solid than the clouds.

"Y-Yeah, sure I did, Rick. It-It was so amazing! A brand new star! It was like, BOOM! A-And then it was so freakin' huge and hot, it nearly swallowed us up!" Morty relayed enthusiastically, gesticulating with his hands and arms widely. For as much as he had seen and done on his many adventures with Rick, and for as weathered and more seasoned as he had become, he was still not above a sweet, childish excitement when something really cool happened.

"That's right, Morty. That whole thing, just—just like you said," Rick hummed, continuing to back further and further away from the clouds and even further out from the nebula.

"Are you gonna tell me what it means, Rick?" Morty asked finally, giving in to temptation.

"Sure, Morty, sure..." Rick answered distractedly, still trying to drive. Though it also seemed like he was stalling for time.

Morty overlooked it and smiled at his grandfather warmly, happy with the very sight of him. As often as they were at odds, he just as often felt a genuine connection with him. "R-Rick?" he wondered, "I wanna say thank you. This adventure was really great, ya know? Th-There were sad parts...a-and I still wanna talk to you about 'em, but...really, the whole thing was really good. I never saw such amazing things before, even after all we've done together. I-I guess nothing really beats good ol' mother nature, right?"

"Mm..." Rick hummed, eyes pointedly staring at the rear-view mirror.

Beside them, as they traveled through the cloud, they passed another tightly swirling mass of matter that was glowing intensely.

"And...and I just wanna tell you...that I...I-I love you, Rick."

That mass pulsed and exploded into another huge, brilliant star. The shockwave rattled the ship, but otherwise left them unscathed.

Rick swallowed and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. His hand reached for the gearshift and pulled it back a little further, switching into second and giving the engine more power to propel them faster out of the nebula.

"I know I don't tell you enough," Morty murmured, cheeks feeling warm and dusting pink. It was a bit embarrassing to tell his grandpa such a thing, but that did not make the words any less true. "And I-I know we fight a lot and stuff, but...really, de-deep down, Rick?" He looked over at his grandfather who seemed to be sweating a little now. "Thr-Through it all, Rick...I still love you."

In the distance on the passenger side of the ship, another star exploded into existence, rocking the ship once again and rattling the bottles on the floor.

Rick grit his teeth and pulled the gearshift even further, into third, pressing harder on the gas pedal and lurching the ship backward much faster.

"And—And no matter what happens...even if we do fight or get shot at or get cap-captured by aliens because you stole something from 'em...even then......I-I'll always love you, Rick," Morty said happily, closing his eyes with the intensity of his smile.

The dense cloud they zipped through swirled in their wake, jumpstarting the formation of not one but three brilliant protostars that swirled, compacted, and pulsed with life, each plumping up just as huge as the rest. In being so close together during their creation, they collided and fused into a massive star, ballooning out much bigger than all the others and nearly engulfing Rick and Morty in its birth.

"You—You fuckin' see that, Morty?!" Rick yelled, the ship rattling as they careened away from the expanding massive star in reverse.

Morty held tight to his seat, pressing back into it as if that would help him get further away from the intense heat of the new sun.

"You fuckin' see that shit?!"

"Uh-huh! Yeah, Rick!" Morty screamed, putting his feet up onto the dash and bracing his back into the chair.

The entire ship rattled like the frame was falling apart, and Rick cranked the gearshift back all the way into 'drive' and stomped on the foot pedal so hard, the metal clanged against the floor of the ship. The concentrated dark matter fuel kicked in, and they burst away from the gravitational pull of the giant white and blue star and sailed far out of the dense cloud at last.

They slowed to a halt, the ship giving one last groan and two bottles clinking together. Rick and Morty panted, shaking with adrenaline, and sweat making their clothes stick to their bodies uncomfortably. Morty's back itched from being damp and plastered into the seat, and he eased forward, huffing for a steady breath in the aftermath of that brush with death.

"You...you saw all that, M-Morty?..." Rick asked, his own breaths puffing from his dry lips. He found his flask in his damp lab coat and took it out, lifting it to his lips with a shaking hand. The burn of the last sip of alcohol was even worse now that the liquid had been heated. He grimaced and dropped the empty flask at his feet, swallowing anyway. "Ev-Everything? You felt it?"

Morty nodded, sweat trickling down his temples with the motion. "Yeah, R-Rick. Ho-Holy shit..."

"That, Morty..." Rick began, swallowing dryly and wincing when his throat scraped and stung, "th-that's how—how I feel, Morty..."

The boy held his breath in intermittent puffs, difficult as it was with being so winded.

"That's wh-what it feels like...h-how I feel, Morty..." Rick rambled on, voice raspy. His eyes remained glued out ahead of them, staring back at the way they had just come. "Th-That's what it's like...when...when you tell me..." He swallowed and closed his eyes. "...that you love me."

Morty's eyes pulled so wide the skin stretched at the corners, and his forehead creased deeply with how high he had raised his eyebrows. " _Oh...Rick..._ " he whispered, more to himself than his grandfather.

Rick continued to pant, but his breaths were slowly coming back under control. He quickly glanced at Morty, then turned back to stare out ahead again. He tilted his chin upward, indicating that his grandson turn his attention that way too.

"L-Look, Morty..."

The boy did, rotating his head to do so, since his eyes were locked in their sockets again. All air left his lungs in an exhale of pure astonishment.

Rick had backed them out of the nebula much further than they had been when Morty first jerked awake and laid eyes on it. He could clearly see the entire expanse of beautiful vibrant colors, painted with boldness yet fine delicacy. He saw the roiling ocean of greens and frothing whites and the two splotches of rich reds, all sprinkled with bright blue, red, and purple stars. Most importantly, was the shape of those reds that he finally took notice to. The biggest portion of blood and candy apple reds was like the center of a vast, splotchy, crimson lake, and the bright froth of the nebular waves broke on its shore, circling it in the shape of...a heart.

Morty's own heart picked up in pace and pounded in his chest. His breaths sped up once again.

The smaller portion of reds sat just off to the bottom right of the huge heart, a bit amorphous in shape.

Rick licked his lips and took a steadying breath, still pumped from their adrenaline-fueled escape.

"That, Morty..." he started, a slight rasp to his voice. He quietly cleared his throat and swallowed. "That is...the Heart...and Soul...Nebula..." he said, voice softened, verging on quiet, drawing the name out to make sure Morty heard every word.

Morty knew, in that moment of raw emotion, that he was staring at the heart and the soul of Rick Sanchez—brilliant, and bold, yet elegant and somewhat delicate, and yet far too big to house in a body of flesh and bones. It was no wonder Rick chose to drown in booze to numb his feelings and emotions—with a heart that big, it was probably overwhelming to live with day to day. A heart so big and a soul so encompassing, of course Rick had to hang them in the heavens to have a place to put them. He was practically god-like after all.

Tears blurred Morty's vision of the beautiful nebula, and he finally turned back to his grandpa, the saltwater leaving wet streaks on his youthful cheeks. "Hohh Rick..." he moaned. His hands blindly unclasped his seatbelt, and he swiveled in the seat, leaning up to kneel on it and fully face Rick. "Rick...Rick..." he whined, tears dripping off his chin and hands shakily reaching out, but not daring to move any closer.

Rick sighed and relaxed back into his seat, giving Morty a quiet look of resignation. He stared for a long moment, then finally nodded once and lazily lifted his arms out to either side, a silent invitation.

"Rick!" Morty wailed, lurching forward across the center console and collapsing against his grandpa's chest, curling up in his lap and trembling. "I-I lo-love you, Rick!" he bawled, clinging around Rick and burying his face against the old man's neck. "I l-love you so much, Rick! So much! So so much!" He sobbed and shook and clung, never wanting to let go. Nothing could unstick him from his grandpa, not even the jaws of life.

Rick smiled, the motion fully reaching his eyes, the wrinkled skin around them crinkling that much more. He watched the brightest areas of the nebula before him, seeing more new stars flaring to life in them. Even though it was a natural phenomenon, he liked to imagine, just that once, that those stars were being spoken into existence each time his grandson said those three special words.

" _Yeah...I-I know, Morty..._ " he whispered, reaching up to gently cradle the teen's head against his neck, long fingers stroking at short brown strands of hair. "I-I put you through a lot of shit, Morty. A lotta shit... I get that you get frustrated and tired sometimes... But I keep thinkin'...y-you're a tough little shit...you can take it...you're strong..."

"Rick...Rick...!" Morty whined, rubbing his face back and forth against his grandpa's neck, wiping his abundant tears along the soft, wrinkly flesh.

"You're—You—You're a good kid, Morty. You got my back, and I...I trust you, Morty. I-I don't give you enough credit most of the time..." He sighed and rested his cheek to Morty's temple. "S-Sorry, kiddo...really..."

"Rick!" the boy sobbed, reaching grasping hands further around his grandfather, losing his fingers in wiry blue-grey strands and clutching the old man tightly, squishing their heads together, cheek to temple. "I love you, Rick! M-More than anyth-thing, Rick! More than anything!"

Rick's smile broadened, and he wrapped his other arm around Morty's back and pet through his short hair some more. As distant as he usually kept himself, right then, he felt it was fine to relax and not keep himself bottled up like a cheap booze.

"Yeah...I...I love you too, Morty."

Morty cried even harder, squirming in Rick's lap to somehow get closer. That was all he had ever wanted—just the knowledge that he meant more to his grandfather than a screwdriver or scrap of paper...a lightbulb that was easily replaced. All he wanted was to be loved and cared for by Rick—the one person that meant the most to him... He just never imaged he'd ever actually get that.

Rick just smiled and stared ahead, watching a brilliant red star bursting to life near the center of the 'soul' of the nebula. He allowed himself the slack to imagine that it held significance to their little moment.

He chuckled when small hands brushed over his bald spot and got tangled in his wild hair, yanking him tighter into a hug. He patted Morty's back and stroked it consolingly, carding his fingers through the teen's short brown hair and lightly running his nails along the scalp.

"It's just you and me, Morty...you and me—the heart and soul of the multiverse. Rick and Morty...Rick and Morty forever and forever a hundred years..." he said softly, like whispering a reverent promise.

"R-Rick a-and Mor-Morty..." the boy replied, voice aching from the strain of crying so hard.

"Yeah..." Rick cooed, petting Morty's hair. "Like I always say, Morty. The outside world is our enemy...and they'll try to tear us apart...'cause they don't know what's really important..."

Morty sniffled and hiccuped. "An-And we're th-the only f-friends we got...r-right, Rick?"

"That's right, Morty," Rick praised, stroking his hair. "It's just you and me...Rick and Morty...runnin' around, doin' all kinds'a wonderful things, Morty... Forever and a hundred years..."

"No," Morty whined, gripping his small hands harder against his grandpa's bald spot, feeling the incredibly smooth skin there against the pads of his fingers, "n-not just a h-hundred years, Rick... Forever...forever and forever... R-Rick and Morty, forever!"

"Heh-heh," Rick chuckled warmly, cradling his grandson tighter against his chest and throat. "Yeah...I think that can be arranged, Morty. Just me and you...forever. Rick and Morty and our adventures...forever, Morty. How's that sound?"

"S-Sounds great, Rick. I-I want that. I d-dont' want anything to—to tear us apart, Rick. I love you so much! I don't—don't ever wanna be with-without you!" Morty cried, shaking in Rick's lap.

"Aww..." Rick cooed sweetly, patting the boy's head.

"I'm s-serious!" Morty growled, leaning away finally and glaring through red-lined wet eyes at his grandpa's face.

Rick smiled and patted Morty's back some more. "I know, Morty. Me—Me too." He reached up and gently swiped a callused thumb over Morty's cheek, wiping away the trails of tears there in a move he rarely had the patience for. This time was different, however. This time, they were re-solidifying their bonds, their friendship, their partnership, so it was fine to be overly tender for once. Perhaps, Rick pondered idly, he should be a little more tender more often, if it got his Morty to be so overly affectionate and cooperative...emphasis on the cooperative.

"How about we head back now, Morty, hm? I think this adventure is finally over. Time to plan the next, huh?" he asked, using his knuckles to wipe at the tears on the boy's other cheek.

"Oh-Okay, Rick..." Morty mumbled, his cheeks and eyes reddened from so much crying. His hands clung to the lapels of Rick's lab coat, though, frozen and not letting go, as he stared into his grandpa's eyes that finally reflected the deep kindness he had always wanted to see in them, but only got very very brief glimpses of before.

It was obvious to Rick that Morty didn't want to move just yet, so he sighed and smiled at him, patting him gently on the head and applying pressure. He coaxed the boy to lay back against his chest, forehead and eyes tucked against the side of his throat and small hands still gripping his lab coat. He'd give Morty the time together that he seemed to crave, hoping the kid would get it out of his system by the time they arrived back home. But, he had a sinking suspicion that Morty was going to develop a habit out of all the affection and want hugs and shit more often.

Rick sighed as he shifted the ship back into forward gear and pulled the gearshift back once more, turning the ship away from the Heart and Soul Nebula at long last and setting a course for Earth. He drove at a leisurely pace, at least when it came to space travel, and if it took them an extra hour or two to get back home, then who was he to care. The warm, solid weight of his grandson curled up in his lap was pleasant, and he congratulated himself on a job well done for coaxing Morty back into wanting more adventures. It was tough, and he put himself through the emotional wringer and left himself out on the line, but from the beginning, he should have known that Morty wouldn't take advantage of that. Morty was sweet and genuine, a wonderful contrast to Rick most of the time, and a perfect companion. If he was honest with himself, he couldn't ask for much more than that.

Morty's soft breaths puffed out over his throat and collar bone slowly, and he seemed to get heavier after a few minutes into their trek home. His hand slid slowly away from the lab coat and rested gently against his curled up thighs, and Rick knew that the boy had finally fallen asleep. He smiled once again—he couldn't stop for some reason—and put the ship on auto-pilot. His arms curled around the boy and hugged him tenderly, not wanting to risk waking him up. He knew Morty was physically and emotionally exhausted now, and Rick **did** have a heart...a fairly big one at that. So he sighed softly and reclined his seat a little, then rested a hand against Morty's head, cupping it to keep it against his shoulder and neck. After one more quick calculation, he dialed back the speed a few more gears, maybe adding a few more hours to their flight home. It wasn't often that he got to cradle his little Morty—his original—like that. And in the quiet vacuum of space, he felt like he could indulge for once.

Rick really hoped Morty wouldn't let all this go to his head.

Blinking tiredly, he looked down one more time at the soft, sleeping face of his grandson, cradled lovingly against his chest.

Oh well...maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Images courtesy of NASA, although I did retouch/crop them to bring out the vibrant colors.
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed the whole adventure, and thank you for reading and for your lovely comments and kudos!


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